


Tonight I Sleep on a Bed of Nails

by FridaysChild



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-26
Updated: 2012-02-26
Packaged: 2017-10-31 18:22:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/347052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FridaysChild/pseuds/FridaysChild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: "Tim confronts Damian about how to deal with an unrequited crush on Dick Grayson (he's been there.)"</p><p>Of course, Damian always gets what he wants. Even if it's a long road to winning over his crush.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tonight I Sleep on a Bed of Nails

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Bon Jovi's Bed of Roses, which was my working music for much of this fic.  
> Thanks to salmon_pink for plot help, hand holding, and general writing help, and to clex_monkie89 for Roy in particular.

Damian’s first date is with a girl he meets his first week of what Dick calls “properly socialized human being school” - in other words, public high school. Amy is a cheerleader with tanned skin, straight black hair, and grey eyes. Damian breaks up with her when he catches her hazing potential cheerleaders.

Damian’s second girlfriend is a gymnast named Dee with dark wavy hair and blue eyes. For some reason, Damian gets it into his head that she and Dick should have a tumbling competition. Dick wins, of course, and Dee is so pissed about it that she breaks up with Damian on the spot.

Damian doesn’t bring home another girl. Instead he comes home from Titans Tower with the third Speedy, a young man who resembles Roy quite a bit. They have a volatile on-again off-again relationship that includes Dick walking in on them three times, frequent exchanges of batarangs/arrows, and a final implosion that results in the near-destruction of Damian’s room in the tower, mutual broken bones, and the fury of both Batman and Green Arrow.

Damian meets his second boyfriend at school. James is a bit of a mischief maker, which Dick points out with an air of disapproval. Tim has to leave the room because he’s laughing so hard. Damian is crushed when James moves away and spends the next six months taking it out on Gotham’s criminal element.

Damian occasionally helps Dick out with the business aspect of Haly’s; he and Tim both have a grasp of business that Dick’s probably never going to have. He’s competent, sure, Bruce made sure of that much, but he can only keep Haly’s chugging forward. He needs Damian for the riskier moves.

That’s where Damian meets Alex; he’s one of the newest and youngest members of Haly’s but is still a few years older than Damian. His resemblance to Dick is subtle but strong; dark wavy hair, blue eyes, an acrobat’s physique. He moves the way Damian imagines Dick moved before Robin - graceful, powerful, but not quite as deadly as he is now.

In love is an awfully strong word for a nineteen year old to be using, Damian knows, but he’s in lust at the least, and it completely blindsides him when Alex dumps him. That evening finds him drunk off his ass in the kitchen with a bottle of whiskey he snuck when Alfred wasn’t looking.

“What happened?” Tim pries the bottle out of Damian’s hand.

“Fuck if I know,” Damian snarls. He alternates between being a nasty drunk and a maudlin one. Right now he’s nasty. “He said I wasn’t seeing him. What does that even mean?”

Tim raises a brow in a way he learned from Bruce. His resemblance to Damian’s father is rather eerie. “It means maybe you should stop dating people who remind you of Dick.”

Damian sputters. “You are so full of it.”

Tim’s brow raises a fraction of an inch higher. “It wasn’t exactly subtle.”

Damian tries to stare Tim down for a second, but it’d be easier if Tim wasn’t right. He groans and rubs his face. “Oh, God. Does everyone know?”

“No. Bruce probably...suspects.”

“Does Dick know?”

Tim laughs, though not in a mean way. “Dick is the kind of person who’s easy to love,” he admits. “He doesn’t notice, most of the time.”

“You!” Jealousy curls in him and unconsciously he takes on a confrontational posture, half-way standing.

Tim holds up his hands. “I don’t want to fight you right now. It was awhile ago and I’m over it.”

Damian slumps back into his chair. “How?”

“Way I see it, you have three choices. You can tell him how you feel, let him break your heart, and move on faster. You can try leaving for awhile. Or you can find someone else.”

“I knew you and Miguel were more than friends!” Damian exclaims.

Tim doesn’t bat an eyelash. “My relationship with Bunker is none of your business. But I picked option number one.”

“You told him?”

“He was very nice. He also made it clear that he’s into redheads. With breasts.”

Damian slumps a little farther and reaches for the whiskey again. “So do you know how to make this taste not like ass?”

“I think you’ve had enough, actually. Dick and Bruce will both kill me if I sit here and watch you get alcohol poisoning, fun as it would be for me.” He sets the bottle out of Damian’s reach. “C’mon, I’ll help you up to bed, just this one time.” He gets a tall glass of water into Damian and manages to get him under the covers, then retreats. Damian doesn’t fall asleep so much as pass out; the last thing he thinks before he falls asleep is that maybe Tim’s ideas are worth trying. It’s not like he’ll be any worse off if Tim is wrong.

 

“I’m worried about Damian.” Dick is beyond worried. It’s not just that Damian’s miserable, it’s that he’s miserable and doesn’t seem to be acting like himself. He’s almost...despondent.

“Hn,” Tim grunts. He’s bench pressing with Dick spotting him, and his expression seems guarded.

“Do you know what’s going on with him?” Dick asks, suddenly suspicious. Tim has a very good poker face, but Dick also knows him very well.

Tim’s words come out slowly, in sync with the weights he’s lifting carefully so he doesn’t strain himself, breathing in time as well. Out - lift. In - release. “Nothing I can share with you.”

Dick’s surprised (and maybe a little hurt) that Damian told Tim and not him, but sometimes it’s easier to talk to someone you’re not as close to, because you don’t care what they think. Of course, sometimes Tim just knows things, too. “Should I be worried?”

Damian’s latest boyfriend is all wrong for him. Dick can see it clear as day. Strangers on the street can probably see it. Brian is quiet, a doormat, kind of dour, occasionally mean. He’s a skinny, pale blond, small, and maybe passably attractive on a good day.

The relationship wasn’t bad to start with, exactly, but the relationship’s a year old and probably a good six months past its expiration date - at least. He and Damian have fights where they say the cruelest things to each other, loudly enough to be heard in half the rooms in the manor. Dick can’t figure out why they’re still together, other than Damian won’t let Brian go. If not for the fact that it’s clearly Damian who’s clinging so fiercely he’d suspect Brian was a gold digger.

“Damian just really wants this one to work out,” Tim says. “I understand why, and wanting it is half the battle, but...it’s only half.”

Dick nods a little. That’s something he can understand, although he’s still concerned. “Should I say something?”

Tim settles the weights back in place on the bench and sits up. “No. Let him be. He’ll talk to you if he wants.

 

Dick should really know better than to ignore Tim. And he sort of knew that Damian wouldn’t be happy with Dick’s interference in his love life, but...

“How dare you tell me who I can’t date,” Damian snarls.

“I’m not saying you-”

“You are not my father. Do not try to be my father, do not forbid me from dating-”

Damian’s pulled that card only a few times since Dick has known him and he hasn’t in a long time. Dick knows he’s really angry, and trying to be hurtful (and succeeding); what he doesn’t understand is why Damian’s this angry. He ducks the vase Damian throws at him, thinks about going after him as he retreats, but thinks better of it.

Tim slips through the door. “Seriously,” he says. “I really wasn’t kidding about leaving it alone. I’ll go talk to him.”

 

Damian’s still ranting under his breath when Tim comes in. He doesn’t say anything, just leans against the wall and waits. After a moment, it bubbles up in him like he’s a soda can that’s been shaken and he can’t keep it down. “It’s bad enough that I can’t have him, that I have to look at him every day and want him. But he wants to give me fatherly advice on the relationship I can have. He doesn’t...he doesn’t get to do that, he doesn’t understand...” Damian goes on in this vein for several minutes while Tim listens patiently.

“Look, I know I suggested you should find someone else, but I didn’t mean the first yahoo that came along. I’m glad you’re not dating another Dick clone, but you can’t make it work through sheer willpower. Especially when only one of you is fully committed.”

Damian looks like he’s going to explode again, then mutters something, shaking his head. “Then maybe I do need a little space.”

 

Damian’s first week away is awful. He didn’t know how bad it was going to be. Dick was the first person who cared for him, and not getting to see him every day is like torture. He misses Dick’s smile, his easy grace, the way Dick treats him. Here he’s a stranger. It’s not like his early days with his father where no one quite trusted him, but it’s not the warmth he’d grown accustomed to without realizing it, either. Damian calls it Dick-withdrawal and barely manages to drag himself off his questionable bed in the weekly motel he’s staying at long enough to feed himself and jog.

He tells himself that it’ll get better. That it is better than being around Dick. It isn’t.

Here, in the middle of nowhere, far from anyone who knows him, he doesn’t even have to try to hide what he wants. Who he wants. It doesn’t matter how they act, now; he just goes out, finds the man who looks the most like Dick, and goes home with him. It’s never very good sex; he’s too angry and miserable when he screws the guys into the bed, and if Dick’s name slips past his lips in the middle of things, who’s ever gonna know? Half the time the guys just think he’s being obscene. One notices the way he says it, and gives him this look that says he knows what’s going on. It’s a look of empathy and they don’t end up finishing, but Damian stays overnight for once, with arms around him, thinking that this man is too close to Dick.

“I thought it would get better,” he says.

“So is he dead, straight, or just a heartbreaker?” his companion - Fred? Ned? - asks.

“The last two,” Damian answers, with a long sigh. “Thought if I left, I could...I don’t know. Forget?”

Fred-Ned shakes his head. “You can’t forget. You love someone, you always love them. Even if you hate ‘em too.”

“Well, isn’t that cheerful,” Damian says. “Thanks, Ned.”

“Teddy.” The man doesn’t seem too offended, and it just figures he’d be a Teddy.

“Sorry.” Damian doesn’t feel like being that asshole the way he usually is tonight. “I thought I’d not miss him so much if I was away. But I think it’s worse than ever.” Maybe he can’t deny this anymore. It’s not temporary. It’s not just attraction. He doesn’t know if he’s in love with Dick, but he definitely loves him. He grumbles and rests his head on the pillow. “Drake’s ideas are stupid anyway. Screw him, I’m going to do things my way.” And his way, he always got what he wanted.

“What?” Teddy says.

 

Dick’s relief when he finds out Brian and Damian finally permanently broke up turns to greater concern when he finds out Damian ran off to Star City - supposedly, anyway. Damian could be anywhere.

Tim has to talk him out of flying cross-country to look for him. “Leave. Damian. Alone,” he says, very firmly. “You cannot help right now. You showing up will only hurt things.”

Dick is miserable. He’s trying not to think about it too hard, why he misses Damian so damn much. He knew that he didn’t want Damian to leave; he’s turned out to be a great partner, a good balance, and someone to lean on. He wonders a little if he took Damian for granted, and that’s why he left. He sends Damian emails that are never answered, and tries not to take it personally since eventually the emails start bouncing when Damian’s inbox is full. Oracle assures him Damian isn’t checking his email at all. Tim’s getting updates from somewhere and it’s actually starting to piss him off that Tim knows more than he does. Damian doesn’t even like Tim. Tim doesn’t even like Damian. And Damian is his partner, not Tim’s.

He expresses this to Tim in a moment of frustration. Tim looks genuinely surprised for a moment and then a corner of his mouth turns up. “You sound jealous.”

“I’m not jealous,” Dick says, even though he’s totally, totally jealous.

“Uh-huh.” There’s basically no putting one over on Tim. “Just trust me, okay? Leave it alone.”

Dick does trust Tim, so he leaves it alone. But he doesn’t like it. At all.

 

When Damian finally comes back it’s with a new costume, but he settles back into his partnership with Dick like he never left. Dick is Batman and Damian is his even darker shadow.

He and Tim have been getting alarmingly civil, though, so Dick isn’t entirely sure what to think when Damian starts asking questions about Dick’s taste in romantic partners. Damian probably thinks he’s being subtle, and maybe to any civilian, he is - he’s careful to keep his questions fairly neutral and drops them into general conversation and among the icebreakers they play when they’re stuck at a window or on a roof doing surveillance for hours at a time.

“If you were stuck on a desert island with one person, who would it be?”

“Well, obviously you or Tim or Bruce or Babs-”

“Tt. You have to pick, Batman. Besides, the point is you’re supposed to pick your ideal mate.”

“That wasn’t part of the question,” Dick points out.

“If you’re going to be stuck on a desert island, obviously it should be with a life partner.”

And really, this question wouldn’t be suspicious in itself. It’s just that Damian’s been sniffing around this subject a lot and Dick’s really starting to get the idea that Tim put him up to it. He really needs to dissuade the both of them from this now, because he’s not interested in Tim that way, never has been, and never will be. “Rachel McAdams. Great ass, fantastic boobs, and looks great with red hair.” Because Dick likes redheads. With breasts. Make a note, Tim.

“Fine. What about you?” Turnabout is fair play and maybe he can make Damian blush a little.

Damian doesn’t turn his head but his body’s subtly leaning towards the window now, and it gives the impression that Damian’s looked away from Dick. “I’m not prepared to answer that at this time.”

“That’s not the game.”

“Fine. Matt Bomer.”

Dick wants to protest that’s not really an answer, but he’d done the same thing, so. Damian asks him about what ice cream flavor he’d be (Rocky Road) and Dick starts to think he’d dropped it for the night.

“What are your ideal traits in a partner?” Ouch, that one’s even less subtle than the last. Dick’s already thinking that he’s going to have to force this conversation and absently says something about someone who’s strong, smart, acts with conviction, can hold her own in a fight. Things he still loves about Kory and Babs, things that he likes about-

Dick loses his train of thought, both of them. He tries to gather his thoughts. Things he likes about- who? He needs to get Damian off this subject, he really does, and- His brow creases, and he realizes he’s stopped talking and Damian’s giving him a look where he thinks Dick is touched in the head. “Um, so those things, I guess,” he finishes, then realizes he didn’t actually mention red hair this time. Although Damian had meant personality traits, probably. “How about we do I Spy for a little while?” Dick’s sure it’s the least subtle topic shift ever, but Damian doesn’t comment, just nods and lets him change the subject.

 

Dick saves the scolding for when they’re home and out of costume, then stops Damian before he can go up to his room. “Look, Damian, I’m glad you and Tim are getting along better, but if you’re fishing for information for him, I’ve already told him I’m not interested in him that way.”

Damian looks surprised and his expression shutters for a long moment. He’s gotten much better but he’s always been more volatile and therefore easier to read. After a moment, though, he smirks. “You might want to check the Atlantic City News from January 14,” he suggests. Dick has no clue what he’s talking about.

He fetches his computer and then nearly swallows his tongue when he sees the photo from a business piece about the gay marriage industry. Tim’s in disguise, but it’s one he recognizes, and Miguel hasn’t bothered. Dick is going to KILL Tim. “You KNEW about this?” he yells at Damian.

“Who do you think rooted up an officiant who wouldn’t go blabbing about who she really just married?” Damian asks, and he looks pleased as hell now. Dick is still pissed as hell he’s been left out and he sputters at Damian.

“You...double workouts!” he threatens.

Damian just laughs. “Right, like you can order either of us around.” He puts his feet up on the table, probably because he knows it annoys the hell out of Dick. When other people do it, anyway. Dick glares at him, refrains from saying anything, and then stalks off, probably to confront Tim about being the last to know about his relationship.

 

Damian figures it’s time to change to a different plan. Dick’s onto him, even if he’s misread Damian’s exact purpose in asking his recent questions.

Damian’s hot and he knows it; with it comes self-confidence that people also find attractive (though moreso when he reins it in and keeps it from looking too much like arrogance). Damian’s also fairly sure he’s caught Dick looking at men before, which means he was lying to Tim to spare his feelings, but even if Dick’s never been attracted to men before, he’s bound and determined that he will be the first.

It’s really not that hard to work a bit of seduction into his normal routine. Dick tends to have one eye on him at all times anyway - moreso now that he’s back, even - so it’s pretty simple to make sure to face the right way to give Dick a view of his ass when he’s stretching, or to put a little extra arch in his back when he’s lounging on the couch. He works up to a lot of it, knowing Dick will spot a sudden change.

The suggestive swing in his hips is added gradually. His “I’d like to fuck you into the bed” expression transitions from his usual smirk through a slightly darker, more heated look. He already tends to sit in a sprawl that Bruce doesn’t approve of, knees on either side of the chair, and if the spread of his legs inches a little wider over time, who’s going to notice?

Of course, Dick is as practiced as the rest of them in wearing a poker face, even if he often chooses not to; whether Dick’s noticing is anyone’s guess.

 

Dick has been trying to ignore the fact that somehow, for some reason, he’s finally noticed that Damian’s turned into a man.

He wakes up panting in the predawn light after an uneventful patrol night where Damian spent half the time grinning rather wickedly like he was planning something and the other half messing with his boot, which he swore felt “off.” Dick felt frazzled, for reasons he didn’t understand.

When he wakes, it’s to fleeting images from dreams. Damian’s skin under his fingers. Damian’s mouth devouring his. Damian’s hand, running down his spine and squeezing his ass. Then sweat and friction and frantic heat between them- and he woke up, painfully hard, and tried not to think at all as he jerked off.

Dick hadn’t been lying to Tim, exactly; he is, on rare occasions, attracted to men, but it’s hardly worth mentioning since the times it coincides with that man also being attracted to him add up to zero. His taste in men differs quite a bit from his taste in women, though; redheads don’t turn his head but he’s always been quite appreciative of Superman’s broad chest and blue eyes. He doesn’t ever recall having a wet dream about another man, though, and any interest in men he possesses has remained hypothetical, with the emotional component entirely missing.

But after that dream, Dick can’t seem to stop thinking about Damian, and it’s like that old cliche about not thinking about the pink elephant. The more he tries to forget it, the more he thinks about it. And worse, the more he wants it. With the sudden (or maybe not that sudden, he finally admits to himself) shift in perspective, everything Damian does makes Dick want him more and drives him absolutely up the wall.

It’s no secret that Damian’s preferences lean towards men, nor that he’s fairly experienced. Dick’s having a hard time believing that Damian’s not aware of how obscene he looks when he’s straddling a chair like he’s riding it, or when he’s lying on the couch with his hips canted up.

Dick finally loses it on a case. Damian’s flirting with the near-victim, and offering “private bodyguard services.” Dick’s almost feeling sorry that they rescued the man.

“That is totally unprofessional,” he hisses at Damian, once they’ve finished dealing with the situation. “We take care of the victims, we don’t hit on them.” It’s not that he’s jealous, he’s just-

Okay, there’s no possible way he can twist this. He’s jealous. Really jealous. He wants Damian moaning under him and- 

He cuts off his train of thought there and starts reciting the current list of organized crime bosses and their internal organizations. 

Oddly, Damian doesn’t look as perturbed as he usually does when Dick yells at him for a transgression. “The second he appears to mind, I’ll stop,” Damian says, though oddly enough he does tone it down quite a bit as they get the man home.

 

Damian’s frustrated.

He’s pretty sure Dick isn’t as straight as he pretends to be. Or maybe it’s just never come up. He’s even fairly sure that Dick is interested, physically if nothing else. He gets huffy and glowery and distinctly not Dick-like when Damian hits on other guys. But Damian’s pushed it far past the point any other guy would have tolerated without breaking down and just kissing him or pushing him up against the wall or whatever. 

The combination of Dick’s apparent jealousy and the fact that he won’t do anything about it means that Damian’s downright celibate for the first time in years. He itches. 

“Okay,” Tim says, gnawing on a carrot stick as they talk over lunch. “Let’s suppose for a moment that you’re right, that Dick isn’t as straight as he wanted me to believe. I’ll bite, since he’s a horndog who hits on everyone. Maybe I just wasn’t his type.”

“Yeah, annoying hangers on aren’t his thing. Who knew.”

Tim looks like he’s resisting an eyeroll. His eyebrow twitches. “Bite me, Damian.”

“No thanks. And does your husband know you talk like that to other men?” Damian steals one of Tim’s carrots, just to annoy him, even though he thinks Tim eats like a rabbit. “Dick is totally not straight. In fact, I’m starting to think gay is somehow inherited through the Robin suit.”

“Along with black hair and blue eyes? And thankfully not bad puns?” Tim suggests. “But so what if Dick’s a little bit gay. He’s still not going to do anything about it.”

“If I push it hard enough, he will.” Damian remains stubborn on this point.

“Let’s call this Variant on Occam’s Razor. When you eliminate all the other options, the only thing left is telling Dick the truth.”

Damian shakes his head. “I kind of like having plausible deniability.”

“Yeah, and by the sounds of it, so does Dick. Damian, Dick is significantly older than you, and no matter his actual perspective, he probably thinks he’s supposed to treat you as his charge. I know you’re not anymore, you know. Hell, even Dick knows. But change isn’t easy for people. You’re going to have to talk him into this.”

“And you think I should?” Damian raises a brow. He’s continually surprised that given Tim’s massive crush on Dick, that he’d been able to see even at ten, that this has become a point of common ground rather than another thing to hate each other over.

“Five years ago I would have been pissed,” Tim says, apparently seeing where Damian’s train of thought was. “But if I was pissed now it would signal dire things for my marriage. Dick’s been lonely since Babs, and he’s good for you. I want him to be happy.” He pauses. “Hell. I guess I want both of you to be happy.” 

 

“I have a problem,” Dick finally confesses to Roy. Roy is the single person in the world Dick is pretty sure won’t judge him for this. “You know how I like guys.”

“First off, worst opening ever,” Roy says, peering at the point of an arrow he’s working on. “Second off, yeah, not that you ever fucking do anything about it.”

“Well, I’ve been thinking about it. Doing something, that is.”

“Yeah?” Roy squints at his arrow, sighting along the shaft. “‘Bout time you explored broader possibilities. So I assume there’s an actual guy, and it’s not me, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“Yeah. That’s the problem.” Dick takes a slow, deep breath. “There are many who would consider the relationship...inappropriate.”

Roy puts down his arrow, full attention on Dick, now. “I told you that you and the pool boy would have a class-transcending romance for the ages,” he says. “But seriously, more inappropriate than they already think the gay thing is?”

A smile ghosts over Dick’s lips. “Much.”

“Is this about your crush on Superman? Because I gotta tell you, I didn’t think he was your type.”

Dick shakes his head. “He’s not. Too Boy Scout. Attractive, but not my type at all.”

“Stop dawdling and spill.”

Roy knows him so well. “It’s just. He grew up. He’s still way too young for me, and I know that, and I’m worried I’m exerting undue influence over him-“

Roy smirks at him. Dick shuts up. “Relax, Romeo. I had you pegged five minutes ago when you said people would think it’s inappropriate. Or more like a week ago, since you’ve been all but doodling ‘Mr. Damian Wayne’ in your notebooks. Also, half your sentences start with Damian’s name.”

“They do not!”

Roy mimes pulling out a notebook. “Damian could have dodged that blindfolded. Damian’s learning to cook and he made this really amazing lasagna, seriously, I can’t go out for Italian because I’ve been spoiled for it. No, I don’t want to see that movie, Damian and I already saw it and it couldn’t possibly be any fun without his witty commentary.”

“I do not sound like that.”

“You sound enough like it that I’m kind of embarrassed for you.” 

Dick sighs. “Do you think it’s a bad idea? I mean, I don’t want to pressure him into anything.”

Roy looks at him like he’s nuts. “Dick, you have specifically mentioned in the past that you can’t get him to do what you want most of the time. He’s already gay, and a giant slut if what you’ve told me is true. I really don’t think you’re going to somehow seduce him into something he doesn’t want or hasn’t done fifty times before.”

“Yeah, but it’s sex. It’s...complicated, even when we don’t want it to be. So it’s not really the same thing as when I tell him to not wear a hood on his costume.”

Roy looks at him a little longer. “What made you finally notice him?” he asks after a moment. “Because most of the time, you really don’t.”

“He’s just ... gotten hot. And everything he does is...God. I think he’s trying to kill me.”

Roy’s mouth turns up at the corner. “Mmmhmm. And what, in the long time you’ve known Damian, would make you think that all of this isn’t something he’s doing on purpose? He’s not stupid, Dick, or inexperienced. He probably intends to lure you in. And then eat you like a Venus Fly Trap. But seriously, he probably knows exactly what he’s doing and what effect it’s having on you.”

Dick’s mouth falls open a little, because now that Roy points it out, everything Damian has been doing is probably totally on purpose. “Fuck,” he says, because every time he’s around Roy his mouth turns into a toilet. And every time he’s around Bruce he acts like he’s never dropped the F-bomb in his life, because Bruce has a way of radiating silent disapproval when he swears. “What if I don’t really want him?”

Roy’s looking at him like he’s nuts again. “Seriously, Dick? You think he’s hot. You’re not going to suddenly stop thinking he’s hot, even if he turns off the seduction routine. No one - except Damian - is saying you have to do anything about it, but there’s not a goddamn reason not to.”

Dick buries his face in his arms. “Bruce is going to kill me.”

 

Tim is right.

Tim is right, damn him. Damian is pretty sure Dick knows but he’s not going to do anything about it. Damian is going to have to force the issue. He wasn’t even wrong before, exactly, it’s just that every relationship is different. 

In any case, he’s going to have to tell Dick now. 

Somehow, it’s the hardest thing in the world to do. He’s asked other guys out, but none who meant as much to him as Dick. And it’s one thing for him to know, and for Dick to know, and yet it’s another to come out and say it. 

But Damian’s never thought of himself as a coward, nor the kind of person who gives up on something he really wants without a hell of a fight. Dick is going to have to absolutely convince him he doesn’t want Damian, and there’s no way that’s going to happen. Especially not after he popped a boner when he “accidentally” walked in on Damian in the cave showers last week. It wasn’t that Damian had orchestrated falling in a questionable puddle on patrol; it was just that when he was toweling off after his shower and heard Dick come in from his own patrol, he might have been very, very quiet in hopes that Dick would pick his stall.

He wants Dick to see him naked a lot more. The man was very appreciative in the three seconds before his brain kicked in and he turned tail and ran.

Damian gets Tim to team up on a job with Dick for the evening, then gets him to tell Damian when they’ve returned to the cave. He waits till Tim gives the signal and then goes in. Tim retreats upstairs as soon as he sees Damian, leaving his costume in unusual disarray, draped over a bench. Dick is halfway through putting his own clothes back in the case; his cowl and cape are off, but the grey and black spandex he wears underneath are still on. 

It was well-timed. Dick won’t be in Bat-mode, but he probably won’t retreat upstairs wearing any of his costume. In other words, he’ll be held by the circumstances.

Damian has never learned to properly talk around a subject the way most people can, and right now he doesn’t really want to, anyway. Dick would just pretend he doesn’t understand, or find some other loophole to avoid the discussion.

“I want to have sex with you,” he says. Even for him it’s blunt and Dick’s face registers surprise for a moment before it shifts into Dick looking like he wants to run away. Dick shifts uncomfortably and looks like he’s looking for something to say.

“And I know you already know that, but I’m sick of pretending that no one knows anything,” Damian continues. “ I know all the reasons you’re going to tell me no, and they even make sense, and they’re still stupid. Because I have tried everything else and this is what I’m left with. I want you, I can’t stop wanting you, and you being virtuous isn’t going to change that. It’ll only make me miserable. So _please._ Just tell me the truth. Tell me that you want me too.”

Dick opens his mouth, shuts it. “Damian...” His mouth has a stubborn set, like he wants to keep up the charade.

“No. Tell me the truth,” Damian repeats. “Just say it. The world isn’t going to end if you say it.”

Dick’s quiet for a long moment. “No...you’re right. It won’t.” He sounds a little bewildered. “I...I don’t usually like guys. I mean, sometimes I do, but. Not like...”

Damian smiles slowly. “Not like me.”

Dick sighs. “No. Nothing like you.”

Damian steps closer, deliberate and not sudden. “And the world won’t end if I kiss you, either.” 

Dick shakes his head, mute. Damian closes the last distance, personal space between them eliminated, and cups Dick’s face, drawing him in for a kiss. It’s slow at first, and Dick’s not entirely responsive, but then he sags against Damian like he’s finally given in. One of Damian’s arms wraps around his waist, holding him, as he kisses Dick slow, sucking on his lower lip, and eventually working his way into Dick’s mouth, exploring, seeing what gets the best reaction.

After long minutes where they kiss desperately, like they’re trying to make up for lost time and erase all of the wanting and the longing, Damian finally puts just enough space between them that they’re not sharing breath. “Are you going to argue with me anymore?” he asks, giving Dick’s waist a squeeze.

Dick shakes his head. “I think you pretty much get what you want.”

“True. And if I told you there’s no reason to wait? That you’ve kept me waiting long enough, and I want you now?”

“Well, I can’t let you think you’re right all the time...” Dick’s frowning slightly, despite the teasing words.

“What is it?” Damian hopes that whatever’s wrong, it’s not going to involve Dick refusing him something that he’s wanted for so long. And that he’s worked hard for, dammit.

“It’s not exactly your first time.”

Oh. “I never pegged you for the jealous type.” Damian’s smirking. “Oracle never mentioned it.”

“Well, every relationship’s different, and I’m just left here wondering what’s left for me to show you if there’s nothing new or special.”

“You’re a giant sap,” Damian informs him. “But if you’re really concerned, there are certain...liberties...I wouldn’t allow just anyone.”

Dick’s mouth falls open a little.

Damian smirks wickedly and cups Dick’s ass, then grips him firmly with both hands and lifts him up with apparent ease. Dick automatically wraps his arms around Damian’s neck for balance, then locks his legs around Damian’s waist. Damian pushes him up against the nearest wall and kisses him fiercely. “Mind you, I didn’t say you get to take those liberties today. I have other plans. Plans that involve you screaming my name.” He gives Dick a wicked little grin and carries him off to the bedroom.


End file.
